Vacation

Thunder struck outside the Lifeguard Tower; a boom so loud it made the area tremble, waking up one of those asleep in the infirmary.

Specifically, Dee.

He sat up with a gasp, only for an immediate wave of pain and nausea to force him back down to the bed. It crept up in his stomach, and he felt sickly from head to toe on top of being dizzy. He struggled to swallow the bile back down his dry throat, as his bleary eyes took in the room he was in. His mind registered the medical paraphernalia and equipment on the tables, the bed he was on, and the smell.

Hospital and doctors offices always had a distinct smell about them.

He took a few deep breaths and found his eyes drifting to the right, where he saw the form of Lyra sitting up in the chair, looking over at him with those pretty golden eyes of hers. She was dressed in different clothes this time around, a cleaner shirt and pants that looked a bit loose on her frame. She looked better than last he saw her, which filled him with some relief.

But confusion filled his sleep-addled mind as he struggled to comprehend what had happened, what did happen? He didn’t remember how he got in the room, let alone why he was there. The pain he felt gave him a few clues though.

“Good to see you awake.” Lyra smiled softly and shifted in the chair, leaning forward.

He blinked his eyes and cleared his throat quietly. “Lyra? What…?” He gently shook his head as he lay on the bed. Grogginess snuck into his body, his limbs ached, as did his injuries. “What the hell happened?”

“You passed out when we got to the Lifeguard Tower,” She told him, arms still crossed. “There was a bit of a fight with Liam, and afterwards you just dropped like a bag of apples off a cart.” Her eyes flickered about his features as she gazed at him, as if watching for his reaction.

Dee just gazed off into space, half paying attention while the other portion was busy trying to figure out if this was still his reality, or if he was in some kind of stress induced coma dream. Eventually he managed to speak, “I… well, that explains some things, thanks for clearing it up.” The memories flooded in slowly, and his dislike of Liam only grew. “Fuck, how long was I out for?”

“A week.” When Dee’s eyebrow shot up in surprise, she elaborated. , “You were badly hurt, Dee… between the gunshot wound, being bruised and beaten repeatedly, and picking up a mild concussion on top of it, it’s a wonder you’re still alive!” She raised her voice in a scolding tone briefly only to catch herself, and quickly glanced over to where a few other injured people were sleeping - or at least attempting to. After making sure she hadn’t woken anyone else up, she continued, “We had to give you the last of the medicine so you wouldn’t get an infection.”

Dee felt a minor wave of guilt wash over him. They’d used to last of the medicine on him? If that was truly the case, and if they were still in a bad situation, odds are they’d be out for the time being until some scavenging runs were made to scrounge up more. He rubbed his forehead and sighed, “Shit… that’s not good. But a week? There have been no more attacks…?” he asked her hopefully, wondering if that meant rescue had arrived and their nightmare was finally over..

Lyra nodded slowly. “No, but that’s not to say it’s hasn’t been rough the past few days. Everyone’s been on edge because of what’s been going on, between the monsters outside the walls and the food situation…” And in a whisper, she added, “And that lifeguard, Liam? He’s still trying to cause trouble for us.”

That got Dee’s eyes to narrow. “Right… him.” A wave of annoyance washed over his form and he remembered what a pain the man was, from his attitude at the gas station before, to the fight they later had. It only served to remind him of how many times he’d gotten struck by the man. “And here I was hoping we wouldn’t be running into him again.”

“He’s with Sinamoi right now,” Lyra brought up. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but from what I heard from Rainbow, he’s still trying to get us kicked out.” She scoffed lightly, “I’m not surprised, given he hasn’t liked us since we met.”

Dee focused back on her and listened, and he agreed wholeheartedly. Yet his focus kept getting drawn elsewhere, as during the conversation he couldn’t help but notice she was constantly adjusting her jacket, which was a tad too tight for her form. The red zip up flannel hoodie that was only done up halfway, exposing a white v-neck underneath and the barest hints of a dark green bra.

He didn’t like the fact he stared on occasion, but it was hard when his company was less than human and had a more than just simply attractive figure.

A snicker broke him from his staring, “I see you’ve noticed that my new clothes are a bit too tight?” Lyra made a show of tugging at her flannel, specifically near the halfway point that was keeping most of her top together. Her finger teased the zipper for a moment, seemingly fully aware of what she was doing, watching his reaction carefully. “I lost my bag when we crashed here and what I was wearing got ruined. The shirt you gave me helps out a lot, but it does have a couple of problems~” She pulled and the zipper came loose, as did part of the flannel, exposing more of her bust barely contained by the rather tight shirt. Her breasts shifted and bounced slightly behind the shirt, which was more than enough to give Dee his own problems.

Dee could feel his face burn as her finger traced lower, briefly but tantalizingly tracing the outline of a curve, and he coughed. “Ahem, y-yeah… crashed here,” He glanced away from her briefly. As much as a part of him would love to stare, and he recognized that she was all but inviting it--was this a thank-you for his rescue of her?--he had enough self-control to note the current situation wasn’t exactly appropriate for that, “But, uh… h-how did you g-guys get here a-again?” He tried but failed to master both his nerves and suddenly aroused libido, which was making itself known despite his lingering pain and wounds.

The details escaped him, but Lyra was kind enough to explain.

“My friends and I were on an airship,” Lyra started as her hand drifted back down to her lap, and the zipper she undid was left alone. “We were all headed to Haywaii for a vacation. Myself, I was going to get away from it all for a week or so, relax, maybe drink a little and dance.” She propped her head up with a hand and glanced sideways, a frown tugging at her lips. “But then one of the passengers on our ship turned into one of those zombie things outside, bit another pony and… well, we lost the captain during the chaos and ended up with no one to pilot the ship...” her voice trailed off as she gave a visible shudder. “I won’t lie, Dee. I thought we were all dead.”

“You crashed.” Dee finished for her, and she nodded.

“Well, they crashed, a few fell off before the ship made landfall… that’s how I got hurt,” She lifted her hoodie, showing the underside of her breast where some bandages were wrapped snugly around a wound he couldn’t see. “I hit fell out when we went over the island and I fell out from low altitude as the ship listed hard, hitting some trees on the way down.”

“Ouch.” Dee hissed and held his own chest in sympathy--no wonder she was in such bad shape! “You’re doing better now though, eh?” Falling off of a moving airship and smacking into some trees on the way down didn’t sound like something you could just walk away from, not unless you were in a movie. Lyra seemed okay for the most part, however.

“Yeah, those pain meds I got helped deal with the pain a lot,” She lifted up an arm and flexed for a moment, a tiny smile on her face. “Bonus points for being a unicorn, too--what little magic I had left in me helped speed up the recovery.”

Huh… magic? “So that helped heal you faster?” He narrowed his eyes at Lyra for a moment, his eyes scanning her form before landing on a small necklace she wore.

“Yep! I… I would have tried using a minor healing spell to help you, but,” She looked up at her horn, and her face scrunched up. She grunted, the spirals of her horn began to glow and a couple of sparks flew from the end of it, but aside from that, not much else happened. “I can’t use my magic now. After I expended what I brought with me, it’s like I lost any access to it.”

How could a unicorn lose access to their magic? If they couldn’t use magic, what did that mean for the others? “That’s weird, you sure you don’t need to like...” He waved his hand around vaguely, searching for a good word to describe what he meant. “I don’t know, recharge or something?”

A sharp snort left the unicorn. “Pfft, I wish. Normally in our own world, recharging happens automatically, over time. Vinyl and I are not sure what’s going on, but we can’t use our magic here no matter how hard we try.” She looked down at her hands, as if they held the answer, leaving Dee reflecting that an Anthro version of Lyra probably wouldn’t be so obsessed with hands and fingers as fan canon held, given she already had them. “We can’t use our magic to do anything, and Rainbow and Derpy said they’re having trouble flying… there’s something off about this island, and it’s affecting our magic somehow.”

“That’s not good.” He groaned and managed to sit up slowly. Now that he had a moment to get his bearings, he could focus his energy on sitting up and possibly getting out of bed. His concussion had other ideas, sending a fresh spell of dizziness through him.

As did Lyra, who was quick to firmly push him back down onto the bed. “Uh uh, no getting up for you, mister!” She stated and gave him a stern look. “Not until the doc says you can get up.”

“I’m not a baby,” Dee pouted, yet laid back down at her insistence. Seems he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, much to his disdain.

She just giggled, prompting an eye roll from him.

Seems his recovery was going to take a bit, so he might as well make the best of it.

ooo000---000ooo

Everything was so scary.

Marble knew she could handle herself pretty well when it came down to it. She was just as strong as Limestone after countless years of manual labor on their parents’ rock farm, but that didn’t stop her heart from seizing up with fear, and making her question just how safe they really were behind the walls that surrounded the lifeguard tower.

All of the humans were keeping watch, armed only with their crude clubs and bats to fend off any of the monsters, some of them eyeing her suspiciously as she stood outside the building, trying to remain inconspicuous under the shade of a palm tree. The only bright side of their predicament was the gorgeous view of the beach and surrounding resort down below, shorting a long stretch of sandy beaches, bungalows built out onto the water, and crystal clear blue waters for as far as her eyes could see.

At least the travel brochure was right about that much! She could almost see herself getting lost in the view, forgetting her worries and her fears.

Yet most of that was ruined whenever her eyes spotted a rotting body half buried in the sand, the stark contrast between the sand’s grainy color and the brackish crimson that was someone else’s blood reminding her constantly of their dire circumstances, to say nothing of the roaming infected that plagued the island. She still spotted them from time to time outside the walls, whether they were sprinting to some unknown destination or lumbering to feast on a devoured corpse.

It made her sick to her stomach.

“We need to do something about our food situation,” She heard someone murmur.

She squeaked and held a hand over her mouth before looking towards the voice. She saw two other survivors not far away next to some upturned row boats speaking to one another in low tones that her large and swiveling pony ears allowed her to eavesdrop on..

“We don’t have much left, just some boxes of canned corn and beans, energy bars and some energy drinks,” One mentioned, holding up an empty can of beans. “We’re almost out, and we got over twenty people here.”

“Didn’t Sam B and them make a run for some food not too long ago?” The other male questioned, leaving Marble marveling again at how many males this species had.

Still, the question was a valid one. Marble remembered watching the group leave, stating they were going to go look around the immediate area and try to bring back some food. But it had been a couple of days since they set out, and not a peep had been heard back from them yet.

“They did, but they haven’t come back yet.” The scraped-empty can was tossed behind the man, falling down the cliff face and making plenty of noise, which drew nearby infected to try and clamber up the rocks to get the can, only to slip and fall back down and the steep and slick rocks. “If they don’t get back soon, we’ll be fighting over scraps.”

“It isn’t that bad,” A new voice declared in a more accented voice. “Not yet.” Looking over, Marble spotted the head lifeguard, Sinamoi, who seemed to have become the unofficial leader of the survivors. “We have enough food to last us for a bit if we ration it carefully. When the others get back, we’ll have more than enough for several weeks.”

“You sure about that?” Doubt radiated from the one man. “We got a lotta people here, and didn’t we run out of medicine last night? Where’re you gonna find that around here?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Sinamoi insisted, never wavering despite the questions being thrown at him. “A lot of the paramedic trucks are missing, but they’re probably strewn about the resort areas, they’ll have medicine in them. The gas stations also have medical kits inside them, not counting the bungalows and the hotel itself. If push comes to shove… we’ll make do with what we have for now.”

The two survivors calmed down and shared a look with one another, before nodding and going off somewhere.

Marble never was one for talking a lot; she preferred staying quiet and she knew she could never take lead like Sinamoi did--one of the reasons she had nearly fallen for the equally quiet Big Macintosh during her family’s one visit to their rock farm a couple Hearth’s Warmings back. But what she lacked in voice, she made up with other ways, for example… she had a keen eye.

She noticed Sinamoi was sweating during the conversation. A fist was clenched behind his back, tensing up his arm and shoulder, yet he kept his eyes on the duo the whole time.

What could he be nervous about? She wondered and worried, and soon enough she was so lost in her thoughts she failed to notice his gaze falling on her. She didn’t realize he had noticed her until he wandered over to her, causing her to freeze up like a deer in front of headlights. Oh no!

“You’re one of those… horses, aren’t you?” He asked, and Marble had to bite her tongue — she wasn’t a horse! “With the group who drove in with the bank truck?”

She nodded shyly. Marble didn’t know much about the truck, but she was glad to see Pinkie’s friends had made it out okay.

Sinamoi sighed and turned to gaze out at the ocean before leaning down on the railing that kept them from falling down the cliffside. “I don’t know where you lot came from… hell, Wayne’s muttering about aliens and I didn’t believe him at first, but after seeing you lot.” He gave her a look, to which she puffed out a cheek. “Well… I don’t know.”

I’m not an alien! Marble wanted to say but was afraid to. So she limited her reaction to pouting a tiny bit and looking out over the ocean, her arms crossed.

“I don’t mean any offense,” Sinamoi replied quickly, noticing her offense. “It’s just everything that’s been going on is strange to me, to all of us,” he quickly clarified. “I wake up from a long shift last night and the first thing I hear on the radio is the walking dead, and then after that a plane crashes in the jungle followed by this weird flying boat, on top of that… well,” he gestured to her, “You and your colorful pony friends show up? This isn’t normal, not for us at least.”

Marble let out a tiny sigh and looked down at the ground. He was no less an oddity to her; a human lifeguard, a male who worked on an island resort neither she nor the others had ever heard of before. And then when she learned no one had even heard of Equestria or ponies even though they had heard of humans? She didn’t know what to make of it. It was strange to experience, but then again, everything going on was strange when it wasn’t outright horrifying

“It isn’t normal for us either…” she finally managed a few tinny words. She wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but it was giving her sweet little mind a headache.

Sinamoi’s expression softened at that. “Help will come soon,” he stated with a hopeful tone. And Marble could see him staring out at the ocean, far beyond whatever she could see. “I just need to get the radio here working, and wait for the monsoon to pass so I can contact the outside; try and get us evacuated somehow. It’ll happen and we’ll all be free of this place. Just you wait.” He chanced putting a hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch slightly before he squeezed it and then walked away.

She stared after him for a moment, blushing at the contact. Her sister would likely have greeted that with a wrist lock and if it was egregious enough, a body slam, but her…?

She craved reassurance, and he had granted it. And for it, Marble fervently hoped he was right about their potential rescue.

In truth, she wasn’t sure how much of this she could take. Between the bodies, the monsters, the pure hatred stemming from Liam, and the overall desperate situation they were all having to suffer from, they were all on edge and starting to snap at each other from loss of sleep, lack of food and accumulated injuries. She kept her head up, however, and prayed that her sister and their friends stayed safe.

ooo000---000ooo

“Stay quiet.” Dash whispered from where she was crouched, paddle in hand as Limestone stayed behind her.

The duo had to run fast to escape the rampaging horde of infected, to make them lose track before going into hiding. Thankfully they found a bar with an open door and rushed inside, before closing the door. They could hear the stampeding feet of the humans outside, feel their bodies smashing up against the building as they were parted like a wave of meat.

They kept on going, however, until all was eerily silent.

Rainbow didn’t say anything else as she kept the door closed. She struggled to keep her breathing steady, to keep her nerves calm lest the infected somehow hear them, or even smell them.

She wasn’t a hundred percent sure how the infection worked, whether they could smell them or not, but she wasn’t willing to find out, not now.

They still had a mission to do.

Adjusting her backpack, she gently pulled the door open and peered out into the resort. They had been running so much they made it back to the hotel the others had desperately tried to escape. Now they had returned to it by choice, risking their lives for a few medical supplies. She could only hope they were close to the paramedic truck, for if not, she knew they would have to fight their way back to the lifeguard tower.

She wasn’t looking forward to dealing with the horde again.

“You see any of them?” Limestone whispered in her ear, startling Rainbow and snapping her out of her thoughts.

She mentally kicked herself at that, having momentarily forgotten Limestone was with her.

“No, just bodies.” She opened the door a bit more, and perked her ears up to listen. She heard some distant hissing, but no moans or screechs, or the grumbles she had come to associate with the infected right off. “The coast is clear.”

“We gotta be close to that stupid truck by now,” Limestone exited the building with Rainbow, hatchet at the ready. “So where the hay is it?”

Rainbow glanced around the immediate area, with the massive pools, bars, and the bodies. This place would have no doubt been a wonderful place to relax, but sadly she wouldn’t get to do that for the foreseeable future — or ever unless they could find a way off the island. “Should be on the road somewhere, probably past the hotel… hopefully we didn’t already pass it.” She looked off to the side, noticing a few off beaten paths. “Let’s go down one of those. They hopefully stay away from the mob and will let lead us towards that stupid truck.”

“Those humans better appreciate this,” Limestone growled. “Especially Liam. And if he comes after us or Dee again, I ain’t gonna be responsible for what I do,” she announced in a tone that told Rainbow she meant every word of it. With that, the duo quickly left the bar with weapons in hand; their ears and eyes peeled for any dangerous monster lurking around.

The area was scarce the further they moved towards the hotel, closing in on the outside walls curving around the decorative path lined with carefully trimmed hedges to guide guests to their destination, alongside signs.

Upon reaching the edge of the building, both mares peeked out carefully into the roundabout that surrounded a massive fountain and the front of the hotel, where busses and other vehicles blocked the road, and luggage was forgotten in piles. From the looks of the few walkers that wandered around or tore into corpses, they were in the midst of unloading the bus when the outbreak hit.

Rainbow swallowed.

“I don’t see the paramedic truck anywhere,” She scanned the vehicles, but didn’t see anything that looked even remotely like it. She at least remembered that they were generally white and had an easily recognizable red plus sign on the side of them..

“Must be down the road,” Limestone whispered, “I don’t know which way though...”

“I didn’t see anything like that coming up from the other way,” She gestured to the road heading left from the hotel, where in the distance she saw the smoldering remains of the ground carriage--she’d heard it referred to as an SUV and wondered what that stood for--they used to escape. Seems it had caught fire after they ran for it, now it was a burned out wreck. “It must be down the road leading to the lifeguard tower.”

It made sense that the vehicle would be closer to where it call home. She just had to keep an eye out for the star of life that would be on the vehicle.

“Let’s hug the wall along the side there,” Rainbow looked over and saw they had a clear path leading to the road and the snarl of cars. “Keep quiet and move quick.”

Rainbow Dash was first to run out towards the wall off to the far right, with Limestone quickly following behind her.

Just as Limestone made it out into the open, she heard a strange noise coming from the front of the bus off to her left. It drew her attention enough to cause her to slow, a sort of sporadic gurgling hiss noise that made her hackles stand on end.

Glancing towards the noise, she saw something stumble out into view.

Her eyes widened and she backtracked at the grisly and horrifying sight.

Lumbering into view was… something that resembled one of those humans, but it was so mutated, Limestone wouldn’t have been able to tell had she not got a good look at the remains of the face buried amidst bubbling and oozing pustules and flesh that ballooned outward, warping its body in such a way it made her wonder how it could even stand let alone move. The tattered remains of clothing clung to its body, and it held out an arm before a gurgle escaped its gnarled mouth, “H-help me.”

Her first thought. It’s still alive? Which confused her, and horrified her, that poor bastard was somehow still alive through the mutation he was unfortunate enough to go through. His bubbling wounds and pulsating mounds of glowing flesh made her recoil and back away from him, but he stumbled towards her, almost smiling through it.

“S-save me.” He gargled, blood and some kind of oozing yellow mess dribbled from his twisted maw, as bloodshot eyes locked onto her like heat seeking missiles. “I-it hurts!”

“Stay back.” Limestone told him, holding up her hatchet as he tried to close the distance between them both.

Rainbow’s voice broke her concentration. “Limestone!” A quick glance back at where she was and she saw Rainbow running over. “Come on, let’s go!” Rainbow’s face scrunched up when she noticed what was holding Limestone up.

“Help me!” The thing gurgled with every step, dribbling puss and goop onto the ground that sizzled upon contact.

Limestone fought with her legs and quickly backed away. She didn’t know what in the hell that thing was, but she had more important things to worry ab-

Something fell from above and smashed into the thing, splitting it down from the collarbone and down into its torso. The monster gurgled and screeched, his pustules bubbling and suddenly erupting across his body.

The resulting explosion sent her flying and skidding across the ground. Pebbles and debris cut across her bare arms until she came to a stop on the road, and slid up to a car.

Limestone’s vision was blurred and her ears were ringing. Panic set in and she gripped her hatchet tightly, confusion ran rampant through her mind.

“-estone!”

Ears still ringing, she managed to get back onto her now wobbly feet. Her sight was distorted and she struggled to focus, but she did see several shadowy figures approaching her from all sides. She couldn’t focus!

Did she yell? She swung her hatchet wildly, and hit something solid. Her vision eventually began to clear up, her ears cleared up and she could hear again.

“Limestone, move!” Rainbow suddenly yelled, and the mare felt her arm get yanked back.

She was pulled out of the way just in time to avoid getting grappled by one of the infected monsters. Limestone recoiled and got her bearings back and backpedeled from the beast, and turned tail.

“Are you okay?” Rainbow joined her shortly, and kept pace with her friend.

After a quick check, Limestone felt of her forehead. “F-fuck, I think I’m bleeding.” Pulling away her hand revealed blood splattered across her palm. “Damn it! What was that thing? It just… b-blew up in my face!”

“I have no idea.” Rainbow shook her head and focused on the path ahead.

Limestone just grumbled. They needed to find that damned truck already, she was already tired of being away from the lifeguard tower already.

Limestone followed Rainbow for a short time, eventually turning right on the roadway and avoiding the piles of bodies and crashed cars for a fair distance. They entered a tunnel system and came out the other side, just barely avoiding the undead that had huddled up inside.

On the other side, groups of huddled up undead blocked their path forcing them to take an alternate route to the right and up into the hillsides, and stalk across while still following the road.

Finally, up ahead, they discovered something, another one of the gas stations, similar to the one they had just escaped not too long ago. This one was filled with vehicles, some still smoking, and plenty of bodies. Some of which still moved. The windows and front door of the station were boarded up, and it appeared there were survivors still inside, fending off the crowd of undead and infected outside.

Limestone and Rainbow crouched outside of the building, perched up on a hill and hidden by bushes. The path there was blocked off; the horde of undead was honestly too thick to fight through, and there were too many runners amidst the crowd of shambling corpses. The vehicles presented too many obstacles to navigate through safely, and only blocked off escape routes.

“Jeez… so many.” Rainbow murmured.

“Yeah…” Limestone just stared as she heard the panicked yells of the people inside. The hatchet was gripped a bit harder in her hand, but her face remained stoic. There were survivors in there, but… what could they even do against such odds? She may have grown up on a farm, but she was far from the dumbest.

She knew they were outnumbered and outgunned, she only had a hatchet and Rainbow a flimsy looking paddle. There were dozens of them down there, and even with her strength combined with Rainbow’s martial arts skills, they could probably take on a few at most before getting overwhelmed.

This whole situation was a game of numbers, and they were losing.

“There’s nothing we can do here.” Limestone muttered. “There’s too many of them.”

“I know, but...” Rainbow kept looking down at the crowd, and her eyes scanned everything. Limestone noticed her looking around, as if trying to find something, anything they could use but to no avail. “...”

“We can’t stay here, Rainbow. We gotta go find that lifeguard truck.” Limestone moved away, silently and turned around to head over the hill. “It sucks, but we can’t help them. Come on, let’s go.”

She didn’t like the idea of leaving behind survivors any more than Rainbow, but what could they do?

They were simply outnumbered, and to try would only create more victims. Or worse, more infected.

She glanced behind her and saw Rainbow hesitating. But after a last look at the station down below, Rainbow turned and followed after, her jaw tight and eyes downcast.

The duo crested a hilltop and passed through some bushes and a few trees.

Limestone nearly slipped a few times from how steep the hill was, and she made her irritation known. “Stupid… hill!” She growled and climbed up, and glanced back at Rainbow who was similarly struggling. “I don’t suppose you could…?” she trailed off meaningfully as she looked back at her pegasus friend.

Rainbow huffed and looked up. She was covered in sweat, a sight Limestone didn’t expect to see from the normally excellent athlete. “I could fly up, yeah, but I don’t know if I can carry you. And either way, as things stand, the effort would exhaust me. I just don’t have my usual strength or stamina in the air.” Her wings fidgeted on her back at the comment.

She had to have been itching to fly, but with their magic being… sapped or whatever, Limestone wasn’t sure if she would be flying like she used to anytime soon.

“Yeah…” Limestone could even feel her own strength was less than what it originally was. She was still a strong mare, but even then…

She was the first to crest the hilltop and look around, and once she did, “...Are you fucking...”

“What?” Rainbow questioned from behind.

Once she felt Rainbow beside her, Limestone pointed with her hatchet down at the road below. Its paved surface curved through the bungalows and shortly led back to the lifeguard tower nearby… but a short distance away, they both spotted a snarl of ruined cars.

One of which was bright yellow, had a light on top and had the symbols of a lifeguard on the side of it, and a medical trunk in the back.

“Are you fucking…” Rainbow couldn’t help but repeat the half-uttered curse, recognizing that they had taken an incredibly long way around to get to something that was barely a short walk away. But perhaps it had still been worth it--the horde of undead that chased them away earlier was blocking the path there, and had been relatively halved once they got their attention, which left the medical supplies down in the mostly-undamaged ambulance below unguarded.

Both mares shared a look, and then let out a massive sigh.

What a day this has been… Rainbow thought to herself as she and Limestone clambered down the other side of the hill, feeling more invigorated for their goal now being in sight. It was then Limestone slipped on the wet rock and she caught her from behind, flaring her wings to make sure they didn’t fall too fast, eventually sliding with her to a stop at the base of the hill.

But maybe things are finally looking up? she thought as she realized she had two handfuls of Limestone’s mammaries, which were exposed beneath her rolled-up shirt, causing the pair to blush hard as they realized their predicament. “Uh… sorry?” Rainbow tried to remove her hands immediately, only to find them caught between her bunched-up blouse and flesh.

“Sure you are…” Limestone’s growl sounded forced, and for a moment, Rainbow thought her teat might have gone hard beneath her hands. “You wanna screw, we can do it after we get off this sun-forsaken rock, Rainbow,” she told her friend.

That caught Rainbow short. “Promise…?” she asked.

“Promise,” Limestone replied as she stood up, and to Rainbow’s surprise, kissed her deeply before turning back to their task.